In-Box Review

History

At the end of the 1920's, . . .Many former barnstormers soon went on to find work in newly formed airlines and numerous mail and cargo delivery services, but some of them, such as Clyde Cessna and Walter Beech, devoted their lives to aircraft building.

In 1924 they founded a small company, Travel Air Manufacturing, which soon was absorbed by the aviation giant Curtiss Wright. Some years later Walter Beech together with his wife Olive founded their own aircraft manufacturing company, the Beech Aircraft Corporation. One of the first successful projects of the newly formed company was the Model 17, which acquired the name Staggerwing because of its unconventional biplane wing arrangement - that is, with the upper wing located to the rear of the lower one.

The new aircraft was designed by the company as a luxury high-speed cabin plane for short-distance flights, but America was just coming out of the Great Depression, so orders for this novel type from Walter Beech were scarce in the early years. In the mid 1930's the designer made a number of changes to its construction - the fuselage was lengthened, the ailerons were moved to the upper wing, and the track of the undercarriage extended. The modified version was designated the D17 and quickly won the favor of pilots. Before the Second World War the company was able to sell 424 planes of this type and not only in the U.S. The D17 gained great fame after taking part in the prestigious Bendix Trophy race, and in 1937 pilot Jackie Cochran set a women's speed record of 203 miles per hour.

The Staggerwing experienced war before the U.S. joined WWII: it had time to fight in the sky of Spain, and in the confrontation between China and Japan. After the turning point of Pearl Harbor the U.S. military authorities began to be more interested in types which pre-war might have been considered as of little use for military purposes. The Beech D17 was ideal for the role of liaison aircraft - it was small, compact, and with good speed and an excellent cabin it ideally met the requirements of a staff transport and aircraft of rapid communication between military facilities.

With only minor improvements in order to comply with military specifications, it soon arrived in the Army Air Forces as the UC-43 and in Naval aviation as the GB-1 and GB-2. The government ordered 270 such aircraft from Walter Beech's company, and at least another 118 were purchased by the government from private owners for military needs. They always had work at all major air bases and in the vast spaces of the U.S., from Texas in the west to the District of Columbia in the east. The Naval planes were often used far from the sea, and were immediately noticeable at airfields among their army colleagues because of their incongruous blue camouflage.

Before the U.S. entered WWII several Staggerwings were sent to the UK, however not for the Air Forces of His Majesty, but in accordance with an order from Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, who at that time was in exile in London. The purchasing committee of the R.A.F., which already worked in close cooperation with the U.S. Lend-Lease program, obviously could not but pay attention to this unique airplane, and soon the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy received the Staggerwing, on which the British by tradition bestowed their own name Traveller Mk.I, unusually for an American eye spelled with a double "L". By agreement, 107 machines of this type should have been delivered to the British, but at least 12 of them never reached the shores of Foggy Albion, when their U.S. carrier was attacked by a German submarine and sank. Another 95 machines were extensively used by military staff in every territory, from the Orkney Islands in the north to the sandy airfields of the Middle East. After the war they had to be transferred back to the U.S. under the terms of the Lend-Lease agreement, but some Travellers nevertheless found new private owners in the U.K. Post-war the company of Walter Beech returned to the production of an improved civil model, the G17S; however, only 16 aircraft would be built. All of them immediately found owners despite the price doubling compared with that before the inflation of the war period. The last Staggerwing left the factory in early 1949, becoming the 785th machine after 17 years of production.

Remarkable accolades have been won by this aircraft: in 2003, according to a poll in Plane & Pilot Magazine, it was judged to be in the top ten Top Ten All-Time Favorite aircraft of the Twentieth Century.

Kit Contents

71 plastic parts.
08 page insructions.
03 decal profiles.

The kit itself comes in the typical Roden packing with parts in protected cellophane sealed bags. It is a srtaightforward build with minimum rigging found on almost all biplanes of this era. The Pratt & Whitney Wasp Jr radial has some fine details. But I recommend replacing the pushrods. The kit items are by nature a little out of scale unless your doing an OOB. And even then some stretched sprue might be a little cleaner. Lap belts in the cabin should be added. On the original the cabin was considered plush or luxurious for the time. In my opinion the kit cabin could do with a bit of scratchbuilt structure present. The basic kit parts dry fit nicely without any glaring issues. Though there is some flash around the instrument panel. I also recommend drilling out the instrument panel at the gauge locattion and adding a clear backing then add the decals for the gauge faces behind the clear backing. When finished and dry paint this back area a bright white. Though truth be told, even with all the clear plastic winshields it going to be pretty dark in the cabin interior.

Please remember, when contacting retailers or manufacturers, to mention that you saw their products highlighted here - on AEROSCALE.

SUMMARY

Highs: Interesting between the wars and early WWII subject with many possiblities for colour schemes. General fit is good. Average clean up time.Lows: Flattened or weight bulged tires might have been a better choice for this kit. Some flash around the instrument panel part. Windshield and clear parts would be better vacuformed.Verdict: A good kit with some great potential. An interesting subject for Tweeners and WWII.

I was building Off topic jet age kits at the age of 7. I remember building my first WWI kit way back in 1964-5 at the age of 8-9. Hundreds of 1/72 scale Revell and Airfix kits later my eyes started to change and I wanted to do more detail. With the advent of DML / Dragon and Eduard I sold off my ...

Comments

Emeritus,
Actually AMT released a 1/48 kit of the final production Staggerwing, the G17S, back in the seventies. A decent attempt for its time (once you removed all of the "positive location" features so you could get the parts to fit) it mostly suffered from a poor engine and very shallow wheel well.
LINK

"Dear Mr. Stephen Lawson,
Greeting from sunny and very hot Kiev! With this message I inform you that a parcel with a new model 1:48 Beechstagger wing GB - 2 kit (# 447) has been sent to your address yesterday. Please, let me know as soon as you receive it.
Sincerely,
Olga"

Hi all,
Here are pictures of the Staggerwing Stephen has kindly sent me. I admit it took me some time to build it. The reason wasn't the Roden kit but rather a certain Tamiya Mustang which had priority. Anyway, now the UC-43 is done. I will try to write a short build feature for it in the next couple of days.
Jean-Luc

Nice one, Jean-Luc
I'm looking forward to seeing your article. I started tinkering with the kit, perking up the interior a bit and scratchbuilding a proper instrument panel, but I got otherwise distracted - as usual...
I have to admit I was very disappointed by the decals - rather smudged in my kit and generally a bit "soft".
All the best
Rowan